Walking the aisles of the Outdoor Retailer show

Once again, I headed to Salt Lake City for the Outdoor Retailer trade show. OR is a massive show that takes place twice a year, always in SLC. The show is primarily for retail buyers but I’m not here in any official capacity. I use the show as an opportunity to meet up with friends from my work with the Outdoor Industries Women’s Coalition, a non-profit that I am on the board of. One of our key events at the Winter Outdoor Retailer show is an Awards evening, where we recognize women leaders in the outdoor industries.

This is my first time at the winter show and the one key difference I find from the summer show is the weather. It’s not really cold, but it’s not really warm — right around freezing actually, so it snows a little, then turns to rain. Yuck!

So I stay inside. In between meetings on behalf of OIWC and scouting out potential new business contacts, I wander the streets aisles looking for interesting things. And I find it… as I turn a corner in the “Climbing” area, I find there is pull-up competition going on. Wiry young men are vying for prizes by doing pull-ups on a climbing wall set up in the middle of a booth. My jaw drops — the winner has done about 40 pull ups in the space of a minute (or was it 30 seconds?). It was such a blur, I have no idea how much time passed! Regardless, it was pretty darn impressive.

As with any trade show, there are giveaways in many booths. I learned the hard way that just because there is an energy bar sample on every aisle, it doesn’t mean you have to try them all. Energy bars do give you energy but they are not a meal replacement. By the end of the day, I felt terrible. I try to balance it out with salad and lots of water for dinner. And vow to have a real meal for lunch the next day.

When I stop by the Isis booth (a Vermont-based designer of active outdoor wear for women), I am introduced to a new form of yoga. YogaSlackers are a team of yogis that practice a variety of innovative yoga styles. In the booth, they are demonstrating acrobatic pairs yoga with an unsuspecting Isis staff member. It is quite amazing to see yoga poses done with two people.

Although I probably walked several miles each day at the show, it’s not the same as going for a hike. I miss the physical activity, but the weather hovers between snow and rain so I don’t feel much like wandering the city. A friend of mine goes skiing in the mountains but it’s too hard to change my ticket so I head home after the show is over — back to real winter!